By Gita Bhatt

In Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, a character is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he answers. “Gradually, then suddenly.”

It’s the same with climate change. The damage is becoming less and less gradual, and unless we take action, the world could suddenly reach an irreversible tipping point.

We now know the problem is much worse than we once thought. It requires not incremental change, but radical overhaul—roughly halving carbon emissions each decade through 2050. Getting there demands that we rapidly shift to renewables, build new electricity networks, increase energy efficiency, and embrace low-carbon transport. Cheaper renewable energy and technology advances make the move from carbon affordable and feasible.

This special issue on climate, in partnership with the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), brings together a diverse range of voices from academics, policymakers, the private sector, and youth activists. It focuses on the urgent need for climate action and for different, mutually supportive climate policies.

Contributors, including Amar Bhattacharya and Nicholas Stern, identify concrete solutions that can generate massive opportunities for jobs and growth, driven by stepped-up infrastructure investment and technological innovation and supported by a dynamic private sector. The IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva recommends credible carbon pricing policies to encourage the use of green energy, while Harvard’s […]